The NYTVF announced the schedule highlights of its seventh annual New York Television Festival, including a Creative Keynote Conversation with Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof as well as primetime events from FOX, NBCUniversal, Logo and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). The Festival's opening night comedy double-header will feature a red-carpet premiere of FOX's new animated comedy Allen Gregory, as well as the world premiere of comedian Marc Maron's indie pilot, based...

Celebrate, Captivate, and Connect was the theme for the 2011 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA)! After 6 days and over 7,000 attendees the Festival drew to a close Sunday night (April 17) with a gala celebration that included the world premiere of Walt Disney Pictures' ZOKKOMON which opens in U.S. theaters on April 22nd and the presentation of the festival's Grand Jury and Audience Award, followed by a reception.The festival, which screened 32 features, documentaries and short films at ...

  While it is undeniably fun (and instructive) to view the completed films at this year's SILVERDOCS, much of the meat of the 7 day program is in its annual professional conference. Held parallel to the film screenings at the AFI Silver Theater and other venues, the concurrent International Documentary Conference is a must for professionals in the non-fiction field. The Conference brings together leading filmmakers, educators, broadcasters, business leaders, distributors, private a...

After the cancellation of the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards (and with the possibility of a no-show Oscars next month), the Screen Actors Guild Awards held last week in Los Angeles was a return to movie glamour. SAG had gotten a waiver from their fellow union, the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November and has forced other awards shows to cancel their events (actors and directors refused to cross picket lines). In what was a very dignified ceremony, awards...

 Monday, January 28--------After the cancellation of the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards (and with the possibility of a no-show Oscars next month), the Screen Actors Guild Awards held last night in Los Angeles was a return to movie glamour. SAG had gotten a waiver from their fellow union, the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November and has forced other awards shows to cancel their events (actors and directors refused to cross picket lines). In what was a ve...

Tuesday, August 14------Writer/directors of the old school, who worked exclusively in the Hollywood studios of the 1950s and 1960s, are becoming a rare breed. One of the best of these directorial "team players" was the farceur Mel (aka Melville) Shavelson, a comedy writer, producer and director. In a career that garnered two Academy Award nominations for his original screenplays  and deft direction of such stars as Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Bo...